Transform Appreciation into a Returning Clientele

On a personal note, I always enjoyed services provided by “Georgette”. She excels in her field, is fun to talk with and always expresses her appreciation for my business. To my surprise, I received an unusually sweet note of appreciation in the mail from her in honor of the holidays. Why am I sharing this story with you?

If you have made a commitment to yourself to be in business for the long term, and truly desire a returning and referring clientele, then you will want to make note of the following statement: “There is no way I would ever switch service providers.” There are many people in the same field but few as talented as Georgette. And, none of her competitors that I have encountered have ever expressed appreciation for my business.

Providing quality services coupled with the act of expressing appreciation to your clientele for their business is truly a winning combination for establishing a loyal clientele and sound business foundation. This is precisely what encourages repeat business, referrals and testimonials, and will keep you in business for the long term.

Take a moment to review your processes. If you have employees, review all processes with them. Be certain they understand “the how” as well as “the why” for working as you do and mirror your work.

Consider whether you routinely thank people for business. And do you follow-up to learn what your clients are thinking about their purchases? Should you miss out on this opportunity, you may well lose future business and experience poor word of mouth. But when you do check in, you just might hear of a problem that may be easily fixed. You will save the day and once again you will be a hero in their eyes.

All of these practices contribute to building good word of mouth and your personal brand in the best possible light. You will become recognized, similarly to Georgette, as an unusually talented service provider.

On social sites encourage your communities to share their new plans for the New Year. It may spread new ideas for everyone. For the ideas that speak to you most, create a separate message area to communicate with the originator to learn more. It is conceivable you may collaborate on one of the projects.

Should you have new ideas or projects of your own, share them with your trusted peers. They may have creative ideas for enhancing your initial ones whereby you will be headed toward creating something extra special. Consider meeting for coffee or lunch to further brainstorm co-creation.

It’s amazing what transpires when two energetic and enthusiastic individuals come together to develop a bigger picture that will benefit many. By so doing, you will also attract many more prospects and clients to your business dramatically increasing your return on investment.

Remaining in business is dependent on sufficient income. The income arrives only when you deliver excellence and personally serve your clientele well. This is the recipe for a continuous Smooth Sale!

Author:

Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, (800) 704-1499, was honored by Open View Labs as a “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012.” Elinor authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. Elinor is available for keynotes and consultation.

Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, delivers inspirational keynotes at conferences and authored three books: The International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, and her second best-selling book, “HIRED!” stems from community service. Stutz' newest book, "The Wish: A 360 Business Development Process to Fuel Sales" provides readers with a comprehensive plan for building a global audience.
Kred ranks Stutz as a Top 1% influencer; CEO World Magazine named Stutz as one of “The brightest sales minds to follow on Twitter”. She speaks and consults worldwide.

2 comments on “Transform Appreciation into a Returning Clientele”

Thanks, Elinor, for your reminder that at the end everything is about people.

I also believe in the magic of a meaningful conversation between individuals. It’s not about the projects, the deadlines, the tasks, the quotas… It’s about people we work with and people for whom we create something that is valuable, or useful.

Many business people go for fast creation of huge networks of followers instead of growing smaller, loyal communities. The first approach is “the numbers game”, but I’m a believer of intention and building strong bonds over a longer period of time that allows to build trust.

Appreciate, congratulate, recognize are all good strategies when building a loyal customer base. Yet we all make buying decisions everyday that have nothing to do with loyalty as much as they do with speed, convenience and habit.

You may know that the best supermarket is A. You like going there, people are friendly and it’s a beautiful store. However, this evening you need to pick up some milk and store B is on your way home while store A is an added two mile trip with several stop lights. It’s only milk and likely the same brand of milk.